Will clover shade the lawn?

Ever since the thermometer hit 40°C in July in London, even the historic cradle of amenity turf tradition has been in doubt: is the soft monochromatic green square underfoot doomed? That wouldn’t be bad news because from the insects’ point of view, the golf green is a desert, the equivalent for us of an abandoned commercial area, all empty sheds and desolate asphalt. Other solutions are flourishing, starting with white clover lawns.

A trend that its promoters, particularly in the United States (for example, Perfect Earth Projectthis association which wants to convince Americans to give up their “perfect” lawns for more biodiversity and less chemistry), parent of all the virtues: the clover, hardy, is not too afraid of frost or lack of water, it blooms and offers resources to all that buzzes.

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Dwarf varieties have been bred to maintain a close to the ground effect. Note, however, for those who like to roll in the grass, that clover makes green knees. More seriously, it is not a question of leaving the monoculture of perennial ryegrass to rush into that of Trifolium repens. The ideal is to tend towards a maximum of diversity. So why not mix the species, white clover and dwarf clover, therefore, but also crimson clover or Arabian alfalfa, all these legumes having the good taste of improving the soil by fixing nitrogen in it. Hoping to see the famous four-leaf genetic mutation occur, which has the advantage of bringing good luck.

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